Dear mr Rose,

I am writing to respond to your article on ‘The Ice Bucket Challenge: who’s pouring water on the idea?’ In your guardian post you clearly understand that the Ice Bucket Challenge helps the organisation because of the endless amounts of money pouring into their funds, but you also constantly condemn the idea, despite the help it offers to the charity. I personally believe that it is a big help, being both fun and constructive. In this response I will be comparing the ideas in your article to the true facts that lie behind this internet phenomena  to set the record straight on the Ice Bucket Challenge that occurred so recently. This article will show my perspective on how the charity and the overwhelming positivity will aid in the fight against ALS.

The Ice bucket challenge is a unique way of raising awareness that was adopted by the ALS association, the charity responsible for research for treatments and cures for the Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. Several blogs and articles shun the association, stating that their ‘projects’ are rife with fraud. In your article, you constantly refer to problems caused by the participators of this challenge, placing blame on ‘citizens’, ‘celebrities’ and ‘teenagers’ alike. However, a larger problem lies within the intent of the charity in itself. Speculation surrounds the charity, stemming from a pie chart that is on the ALS association website. The chart expresses what percentage of their incoming donations are spent on. What shocked certain individuals was the fact that ‘only’ 28% (previously 27%) of the donations were used for research, 32% is used for public and professional education and fundraising took up a worrying 17% ($1.6 million). The misapplication of these funds is worrying and I feel that the charity somewhat more to blame, meaning that we should direct our criticism more to the association than at the people.

However, you should acknowledge that the Ice Bucket Challenge has in fact raised $24,030,687 for The ALS Association, National Office (according to charitynavigator.org) and a lot of awareness, but you hilariously put that there may be a ‘tipping point’ to the craze. Your article then goes on to say how the Ice bucket challenge is in fact a complete waste of water to the extent that water wastage is actually being fined in certain states of America, ‘it’s #droughtshaming‘ one of which is the state of California that was experiencing an extreme drought, this has left social media reeling at the intense shaming the ALS donation campaign has gotten, or rather the people who ‘douse their staff en masse in hundreds of gallons of water’ (en masse meaning in a group; all together in french). You then go on to mention the Chinese protests within Henan that had people walking through the streets holding red buckets over their heads, as a symbol of their drought-related suffering. These events have clearly affected the challenge through the power of social media; new hashtags like #droughtshaming have appeared, stating some people’s displeasure with the challenge.

The ice bucket challenge is stupid. Sure, you’re raising awareness. But if you really wanna make a difference, skip the ice and just donate.
— ĸeℓѕeყ (@k_silverberg) August 7, 2014 –  a very powerful quote from one of the thousands of tweeters that have expressed their discontent with the ice bucket challenge.

‘The tweet was deleted but the text remains’ says Bostlnno author Hayden Bird in his article ‘The #IceBucketChallenge Is an Example of ‘Hashtag Activism’ That’s Having an Actual Impact on Donations that further advertises the displeasure of the masses online.’

What thousands of tweeters are saying is that there is no point in taking part in the challenge if they aren’t following up with a donation; this has obviously erupted from the large amount of people who only take part in the challenge for attention online. Celebrities are faced with the challenge, and only do it because ‘the “it’s fun”/”it’s for charity” double whammy would make it hard for any celebrity to refuse a challenge’. Many believe that said celebrities only do it for the attention too, but I’m sure that thousands are willing to do it for the charity. Besides, attention-seeking or not, those people are still raising awareness for the cause, which will still do a LOT for the association, even if they decide not to donate at all.

This craze has certainly taken the internet by storm, hundreds of celebrities are taking part and millions more people have dunked themselves with a bucket of cold water, this feat has quite obviously helped the ALS Association grow. And with every Dollar going to the association is a Dollar to finally curing ALS.

This is a good draft – you have clearly absorbed the article and respond – but there is still lots to do.

Targets:

1) Open with your view – what is your response/thesis.  Then, tell us about the article – where did it come from?  Who wrote it and when? Purpose – you are writing a response to the journalist. (done)

2) Re-read your original opening paragraph – how much of this is needed at this point in your essay? How much have you planned your structure? (done)

3) Once you have your argument – link it throughout.